[Measurement and clinical application of MEFV and PEFV curves in young children].

Previous studies of children's ventilatory functions revealed that a history of pediatric respiratory illness could cause an adult airway to be highly susceptible to the adverse effects of a variety of bronchial stimulants and infectious agents and easy to develop obstructive airway diseases in adult life. Ten indexes of ventilatory function were measured with MEFV and PEFV curves in 333 normal young children aged between 3 and 6, and 15 sick children of bronchopneumonitis in the same age range. Multiple regression equations of different indexes of normal children were set up. The measured values of various indexes of the sick children were much lower than the correspondent predicted values calculated from multiple regression equations, especially VT, VmaxFRC and VmaxFRC/FRC (P less than 0.05). The results suggest that the measurement of PEFV is a convenient and sensitive method to test children's ventilatory function.